Fast Food Britain Spends £29.4 Billion on Takeaways Every Year

Jess ReadTuesday 25th March 2014

Brits spend a third of their total food budget on fast food

£1,304 splurged on 140 non-home-cooked meals

Get through an average of 64 ready meals per year

Britain remains a nation of fast food addicts according to VoucherCodes.co.uk’s Annual Food Spend Study. Despite successfully reducing their yearly food bill by an average of nine per cent*, a typical Brit still splurges £109 per month on convenience meals – just £12 a year less than in 2013.

The investigation into how much British adults are spending on groceries, takeaways and meals at bars and restaurants found fast food purchases absorb a third of Brits entire food budget (34 per cent). The average person now makes their way through 84 fast food meals over the course of a year and packs in a further 64 ready meals - totting up a bill of £1,304 over 12 months. One in four Brits (25 per cent) cite laziness as the main reason for their takeaway habit and a further 13 per cent claim they simply do not have time to cook from scratch.

Brits’ Top Takeaway list remains the same for the first time this year with Chinese food pipping Indian takeaway and fish and chips to the number one spot.

UK Top 10 Favourite Takeaways:

Chinese Food

Indian Food

Fish and Chips

Pizza

Fried Chicken

Kebab

Thai Food

Burger

Sushi

Italian Food

Coventry takes the crown as the takeaway capital of the UK - with each person spending £2,456.31 on average and eating 156 of them each year. Swansea’s residents spend the least, at just £677.85 every year.

Men spend far more than women on takeaways, splurging £2,339 every year compared to the £1,355 spent by women. But men are savvier when it comes to making the most of leftovers, using any surplus food to make another meal 10 per cent more frequently than women.

Unsurprisingly, younger Brits are spending more on takeaways and eating out – with 25-34s forking out £2,112.14 on them each year, that’s twice as much as those aged 45-54 and almost double the national average.

Anita Naik, consumer editor of VoucherCodes.co.uk comments: “With all of us living such busy lives, it’s not surprising many are relying on takeaways as quick alternatives to home-cooking. But this study really highlights how expensive this routine can be, with some Brits spending almost as much on their fast food habit as their grocery shopping. Those who simply cannot do without their weekly takeaway should always check online for voucher codes before ordering, many of the UK’s favourite takeaways and restaurants offer discounts of up to 50 per cent with a voucher – but check terms and conditions as some exclude weekend orders.

“I find it’s actually pretty quick to create most of our favourite takeaways at home, and making them yourself comes in at a fraction of the cost of ordering from a restaurant. My favourite option is to buy some pizza bases and tomato sauce, throw on your choice of toppings and cook for 20 minutes. This is something kids will love to help with too and will be ready in the same amount of time it would take to have a pizza delivered!”

Notes to editors:

Researched conducted by OnePoll on behalf of VoucherCodes.co.uk. Based on a sample of 2,000 UK adults between the 5th and 12th March 2014. The research examines the total spend of each adult across grocery purchases, eating out costs and takeaway spend.

To view an infographic of the results please visit http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/most-wanted/infographic-fast-food-britain-21062.html

* Total spend on food last year was £4,280.64 compared to this year’s total of £3,875.12